Optimizing interaction results using ai-guided manipulated video

ABSTRACT

Real-time modification of video images of humans allows for the video to be modified so that an expression of a subject human may be changed. Customer service agents may have more successful interactions with customers if they display an appropriate facial expression, such as to provide a particular emotional state. By determining an appropriate facial expression, and any deviation from a customer service agent&#39;s current expression, a modification to the video image of the customer service agent may be determined and applied. As a result, agents may not have a facial expression that is best suited to successfully resolve a purpose of the interaction, to have the customer be presented with the best-suited facial expression.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has notobjected to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The invention relates generally to systems and methods for video imageprocessing and particularly to altering an expression of a human in avideo image.

BACKGROUND

Video images of customer service agents provide the ability for thecustomer to see the agent and may facilitate better interactionstherebetween to address a particular issue. It is known that a person'sdemeanor including facial expressions can affect the outcome of aninteraction, either positively or negatively. Currently, agents arecoached and trained to provide the appropriate facial expressions todrive the best possible outcome of an interaction—whether they know whatto do or not, and whether they are in a good mood or not. Training,coaching prior to calls, and “in-call” real-time hints/coaching mayhelp, but they still rely on the agent's ability to translate suchinstructions into proper facial expressions. While it may be possible toutilize an avatar, which may be programmed to provide the exact facialexpression desired, avatars do not convey the personal aspects of a realperson. When a customer interacts with an avatar of an agent, theinteraction may fail to provide the desired benefits of a customerseeing the agent.

SUMMARY

Humans utilize vision to receive non-vocalized information about otherhumans with whom we interact. If there is a mismatch between what aperson says and their expressions, that person may be perceived asuntrustworthy or insincere. For example, a traveler who missed a flightdue to an unfortunate event may contact an agent to rebook their travel.If the agent, despite providing consoling and understanding words, issmiling or has a neutral expression, the customer may conclude that thewords are just merely words and without any sincerity behind thosewords. In contrast, if the agent's expression is one of surprise orworry, the spoken words may be afforded additional sincerity. However,conflicting spoken content and expressions, if appropriate, may notalways result in a negative perception. For example, an agent who smilesand says, “I'm sorry, but don't worry, I'll get you on the nextavailable flight,” may have the benefit of being perceived as friendlyand supportive, as well as disarming what is likely a very stressfulsituation for the traveler. However, expression may be a matter ofdegree. A wide grinning smile may be perceived as being amused by thetraveler's plight or distracted by something funny not captured by thecamera, but a slight smile may be better perceived as reassuring andfriendly. However, if the expression is initially one of surprise/worryfollowed by a slight smile then that would provide the best resultssince the customer would get to know that the agent is empathetic aboutthe situation that the customer has landed in.

These and other needs are addressed by the various embodiments andconfigurations of the present invention. The present invention canprovide a number of advantages depending on the particularconfiguration. These and other advantages will be apparent from thedisclosure of the invention(s) contained herein.

In one embodiment, facial transformation technology (FTT) is provided tomanipulate a video image of an agent's face presented to a customer orother party viewing the video to improve customer perception and improvethe results of the interaction.

In another embodiment, human labeling and/or machine observation isprovided to observe during interactions to note when agents use specificexpressions (e.g., smiles, eyebrow arches, concerned look, etc.), alongwith state and situation of call (e.g., topic, time in interaction,sentiment via voice, sentiment trajectory, information exchanged orabout to be exchanged), and result(s) of interaction or sub-phase of theinteraction to create/modify a training database. Then, use machinelearning to identify the best results and associated expressions, withinthe state and/or situation of the call, to determine the best practicesof expressions in order to optimize future interactions. In anotherembodiment, a real-time system is provided that uses themachine-learning-determined best practices and/or other inputs tomanipulate agent faces in a video stream during the interaction in orderto change or further ensure the outcome of the interactions.

In another embodiment, interactions may be paired and provided withdifferent video modifications and the results of the interactionsassessed to further optimize the interactions and identify whichmodifications are successful and/or when certain modifications aresuccessful.

In another embodiment, the actual agent expressions and artificialoverlays may be recorded, such as for use in a quality management andreview process. In a further embodiment, a code, such as a color code,may be applied to readily categorize quality management records, such asrecords that signify when a manipulation was or was not used.

In one embodiment, a system for providing situationally-matchedexpression in a video image is disclosed, comprising: a communicationinterface configured to receive a video image of a human agent engagedin an interaction via a network with a customer utilizing a customercommunication device; a processor having an accessible memory; a datastorage configured to maintain data records accessible to the processor;and the processor configured to: receive the video image of the humanagent; determine a desired facial expression of the human agent; modifythe video image of the human agent to comprise the desired facialexpression; and present the customer communication device with themodified video image of the human agent.

In another embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving avideo image of a human agent engaged in an interaction over a networkwith a customer via an associated customer communication device;determining a desired facial expression of the human agent; modifyingthe video image of the human agent to comprise the desired facialexpression; and presenting the customer communication device with themodified video image of the human agent.

In another embodiment, a system is disclosed, comprising: means toreceive a video image of a human agent engaged in an interaction over anetwork with a customer via an associated customer communication device;means to determine a desired facial expression of the human agent,wherein the desired facial expression is selected in accordance withfacial expression associated with an attribute of the interaction and asuccessful outcome for past interaction having the attribute; means tomodify the video image of the human agent to comprise the desired facialexpression; and means to present the customer communication device withthe modified video image of the human agent.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” “or,” and “and/or” areopen-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive inoperation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B,and C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “oneor more of A, B, or C,” “A, B, and/or C,” and “A, B, or C” means Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, or A, B, and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more,” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation, which is typically continuous orsemi-continuous, done without material human input when the process oroperation is performed. However, a process or operation can beautomatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an embodimentthat is entirely hardware, an embodiment that is entirely software(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.”Any combination of one or more computer-readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signalmedium or a computer-readable storage medium.

A computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable storage medium would include the following: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document,a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible, non-transitorymedium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connectionwith an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer-readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer-readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer-readable signal medium may be any computer-readable medium thatis not a computer-readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program codeembodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using anyappropriate medium, including, but not limited to, wireless, wireline,optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of theforegoing.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” “compute,” and variations thereof,as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type ofmethodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term. “means” as used herein shall be given its broadest possibleinterpretation in accordance with 35 U.S.C., Section 112(f) and/orSection 112, Paragraph 6. Accordingly, a claim incorporating the term“means” shall cover all structures, materials, or acts set forth herein,and all of the equivalents thereof. Further, the structures, materialsor acts and the equivalents thereof shall include all those described inthe summary, brief description of the drawings, detailed description,abstract, and claims themselves.

The preceding is a simplified summary of the invention to provide anunderstanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is neitheran extensive nor exhaustive overview of the invention and its variousembodiments. It is intended neither to identify key or critical elementsof the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention but topresent selected concepts of the invention in a simplified form as anintroduction to the more detailed description presented below. As willbe appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possibleutilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features setforth above or described in detail below. Also, while the disclosure ispresented in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciatedthat an individual aspect of the disclosure can be separately claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 depicts a first system in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts a video image manipulation in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a second system in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a first data structure in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts a second data structure in accordance with embodiments ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts a process in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 7 depicts a third system in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The ensuing description provides embodiments only and is not intended tolimit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather,the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with anenabling description for implementing the embodiments. It will beunderstood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims.

Any reference in the description comprising an element number, without asubelement identifier when a subelement identifier exists in thefigures, when used in the plural, is intended to reference any two ormore elements with a like element number. When such a reference is madein the singular form, it is intended to reference one of the elementswith the like element number without limitation to a specific one of theelements. Any explicit usage herein to the contrary or providing furtherqualification or identification shall take precedence.

The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure will also bedescribed in relation to analysis software, modules, and associatedanalysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presentdisclosure, the following description omits well-known structures,components, and devices, which may be omitted from or shown in asimplified form in the figures or otherwise summarized.

As used herein, the term “video” or “video image” refers to imagescaptured over a period of time. More specifically, video images comprisea first portion of the image captured before a second portion of theimage in order to capture motion or other changes in a scene, whether ornot motion or changes in scene occurred. Video images may comprisetime-dependent portions in the form of complete frames or portions offrames (e.g., interlacing or progressive scan portions). Video imagesare further differentiated by the encoding utilized to convert capturedimages into a file for storage and/or transmission. Examples of videoencoding include, but is not limited to, AVI and MPEG-4.

For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order toprovide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It should beappreciated, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced in avariety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein.

With reference now to FIG. 1, communication system 100 is discussed inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. Thecommunication system 100 may be a distributed system and, in someembodiments, comprises a communication network 104 connecting one ormore communication devices 108 to a work assignment mechanism 116, whichmay be owned and operated by an enterprise administering contact center102 in which a plurality of resources 112 is distributed to handleincoming work items (in the form of contacts) from customercommunication devices 108.

Contact center 102 is variously embodied to receive and/or send messagesthat are or are associated with work items and the processing andmanagement (e.g., scheduling, assigning, routing, generating,accounting, receiving, monitoring, reviewing, etc.) of the work items byone or more resources 112. The work items are generally generated and/orreceived requests for a processing resource 112 embodied as, or acomponent of, an electronic and/or electromagnetically conveyed message.Contact center 102 may include more or fewer components than illustratedand/or provide more or fewer services than illustrated. The borderindicating contact center 102 may be a physical boundary (e.g., abuilding, campus, etc.), legal boundary (e.g., company, enterprise,etc.), and/or logical boundary (e.g., resources 112 utilized to provideservices to customers for a customer of contact center 102).

Furthermore, the border illustrating contact center 102 may beas-illustrated or, in other embodiments, include alterations and/or moreand/or fewer components than illustrated. For example, in otherembodiments, one or more of resources 112, customer database 118, and/orother component may connect to routing engine 132 via communicationnetwork 104, such as when such components connect via a public network(e.g., Internet). In another embodiment, communication network 104 maybe a private utilization of, at least in part, a public network (e.g.,VPN); a private network located, at least partially, within contactcenter 102; or a mixture of private and public networks that may beutilized to provide electronic communication of components describedherein. Additionally, it should be appreciated that componentsillustrated as external, such as social media server 130 and/or otherexternal data sources 134 may be within contact center 102 physicallyand/or logically, but still be considered external for other purposes.For example, contact center 102 may operate social media server 130(e.g., a website operable to receive user messages from customers and/orresources 112) as one means to interact with customers via theircustomer communication device 108.

Customer communication devices 108 are embodied as external to contactcenter 102 as they are under the more direct control of their respectiveuser or customer. However, embodiments may be provided whereby one ormore customer communication devices 108 are physically and/or logicallylocated within contact center 102 and are still considered external tocontact center 102, such as when a customer utilizes customercommunication device 108 at a kiosk and attaches to a private network ofcontact center 102 (e.g., WiFi connection to a kiosk, etc.), within orcontrolled by contact center 102.

It should be appreciated that the description of contact center 102provides at least one embodiment whereby the following embodiments maybe more readily understood without limiting such embodiments. Contactcenter 102 may be further altered, added to, and/or subtracted fromwithout departing from the scope of any embodiment described herein andwithout limiting the scope of the embodiments or claims, except asexpressly provided.

Additionally, contact center 102 may incorporate and/or utilize socialmedia website 130 and/or other external data sources 134 may be utilizedto provide one means for a resource 112 to receive and/or retrievecontacts and connect to a customer of a contact center 102. Otherexternal data sources 134 may include data sources, such as servicebureaus or third-party data providers (e.g., credit agencies, publicand/or private records, etc.). Customers may utilize their respectivecustomer communication device 108 to send/receive communicationsutilizing social media server 130.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication network 104 may comprise any type of knowncommunication medium or collection of communication media and may useany type of protocols to transport electronic messages betweenendpoints. The communication network 104 may include wired and/orwireless communication technologies. The Internet is an example of thecommunication network 104 that constitutes an Internet Protocol (IP)network consisting of many computers, computing networks, and othercommunication devices located all over the world, which are connectedthrough many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of thecommunication network 104 include, without limitation, a standard PlainOld Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network(ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) network, a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, a cellular network, andany other type of packet-switched or circuit-switched network known inthe art. In addition, it can be appreciated that the communicationnetwork 104 need not be limited to any one network type and instead maybe comprised of a number of different networks and/or network types. Asone example, embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized toincrease the efficiency of a grid-based contact center 102. Examples ofa grid-based contact center 102 are more fully described in U.S. PatentPublication No. 2010/0296417 to Steiner, the entire contents of whichare hereby incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, the communicationnetwork 104 may comprise a number of different communication media, suchas coaxial cable, copper cable/wire, fiber-optic cable, antennas fortransmitting/receiving wireless messages, and combinations thereof.

The communication devices 108 may correspond to customer communicationdevices. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a customer may utilize their communication device 108 toinitiate a work item. Illustrative work items include, but are notlimited to, a contact directed toward and received at a contact center102, a web page request directed toward and received at a server farm(e.g., collection of servers), a media request, an application request(e.g., a request for application resources location on a remoteapplication server, such as a SIP application server), and the like. Thework item may be in the form of a message or collection of messagestransmitted over the communication network 104. For example, the workitem may be transmitted as a telephone call, a packet or collection ofpackets (e.g., IP packets transmitted over an IP network), an emailmessage, an Instant Message, an SMS message, a fax, and combinationsthereof. In some embodiments, the communication may not necessarily bedirected at the work assignment mechanism 116, but rather may be on someother server in the communication network 104 where it is harvested bythe work assignment mechanism 116, which generates a work item for theharvested communication, such as social media server 130. An example ofsuch a harvested communication includes a social media communicationthat is harvested by the work assignment mechanism 116 from a socialmedia network or server 130. Exemplary architectures for harvestingsocial media communications and generating work items based thereon aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 12/784,369, 12/706,942,and 12/707,277, filed Mar. 20, 2010, Feb. 17, 2010, and Feb. 17, 2010,respectively; each of which is hereby incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

The format of the work item may depend upon the capabilities of thecommunication device 108 and the format of the communication. Inparticular, work items are logical representations within a contactcenter 102 of work to be performed in connection with servicing acommunication received at contact center 102 (and, more specifically,the work assignment mechanism 116). The communication may be receivedand maintained at the work assignment mechanism 116, a switch or serverconnected to the work assignment mechanism 116, or the like, until aresource 112 is assigned to the work item representing thatcommunication. At which point, the work assignment mechanism 116 passesthe work item to a routing engine 132 to connect the communicationdevice 108, which initiated the communication, with the assignedresource 112.

Although the routing engine 132 is depicted as being separate from thework assignment mechanism 116, the routing engine 132 may beincorporated into the work assignment mechanism 116 or its functionalitymay be executed by the work assignment engine 120.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the communication devices 108 may comprise any type of knowncommunication equipment or collection of communication equipment.Examples of a suitable communication device 108 include, but are notlimited to, a personal computer, laptop, Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), cellular phone, smart phone, telephone, or combinations thereof.In general, each communication device 108 may be adapted to supportvideo, audio, text, and/or data communications with other communicationdevices 108 as well as the processing resources 112. The type of mediumused by the communication device 108 to communicate with othercommunication devices 108 or processing resources 112 may depend uponthe communication applications available on the communication device108.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure,the work item is sent toward a collection of processing resources 112via the combined efforts of the work assignment mechanism 116 androuting engine 132. The resources 112 can either be completely automatedresources (e.g., Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units,microprocessors, servers, or the like), human resources utilizingcommunication devices (e.g., human agents utilizing a computer,telephone, laptop, etc.), or any other resource known to be used incontact center 102.

As discussed above, the work assignment mechanism 116 and resources 112may be owned and operated by a common entity in a contact center 102format. In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 may beadministered by multiple enterprises, each of which has its owndedicated resources 112 connected to the work assignment mechanism 116.

In some embodiments, the work assignment mechanism 116 comprises a workassignment engine 120, which enables the work assignment mechanism 116to make intelligent routing decisions for work items. In someembodiments, the work assignment engine 120 is configured to administerand make work assignment decisions in a queueless contact center 102, asis described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/882,950, the entirecontents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In otherembodiments, the work assignment engine 120 may be configured to executework assignment decisions in a traditional queue-based (or skill-based)contact center 102.

The work assignment engine 120 and its various components may reside inthe work assignment mechanism 116 or in a number of different servers orprocessing devices. In some embodiments, cloud-based computingarchitectures can be employed whereby one or more components of the workassignment mechanism 116 are made available in a cloud or network suchthat they can be shared resources among a plurality of different users.Work assignment mechanism 116 may access customer database 118, such asto retrieve records, profiles, purchase history, previous work items,and/or other aspects of a customer known to contact center 102. Customerdatabase 118 may be updated in response to a work item and/or input fromresource 112 processing the work item.

It should be appreciated that one or more components of contact center102 may be implemented in a cloud-based architecture in their entirety,or components thereof (e.g., hybrid), in addition to embodiments beingentirely on-premises. In one embodiment, customer communication device108 is connected to one of resources 112 via components entirely hostedby a cloud-based service provider, wherein processing and data storageelements may be dedicated to the operator of contact center 102 orshared or distributed amongst a plurality of service provider customers,one being contact center 102.

In one embodiment, a message is generated by customer communicationdevice 108 and received, via communication network 104, at workassignment mechanism 116. The message received by a contact center 102,such as at the work assignment mechanism 116, is generally, and herein,referred to as a “contact.” Routing engine 132 routes the contact to atleast one of resources 112 for processing.

FIG. 2 depicts video image manipulation 200 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, original videoimage 202 comprises an image of a human agent captured by a cameraduring an interaction with a customer, such as a customer utilizingcustomer communication device 108 when embodied to present video images.As will be discussed more completely with respect to embodiments thatfollow, a processor receives original video image 202 and, upondetermining a mismatch between the human agent's expression presentedwithin original video image 202 and a desired expression, applies amodification to original video image 202 to become modified video image204 presenting the image of the human agent to the customer via theircustomer communication device 108 and original video image 202 is notprovided to customer communication device 108.

A human, such as an agent, may not be providing the desired facialexpression due to a distraction (e.g., thinking about lunch), physicallimitation, improper training, misunderstanding the task with thecustomer, or other reason. When video is utilized, this may beoff-putting and decreases the chances for a successful outcome of theinteraction. It may improve the outcome of the interaction if thecustomer is presented with an image of an agent having an expressionthat has been determined to increase the success of the interaction,which may be the reason for the work item associated with theinteraction.

Systems and methods to manipulate real-time video images, such asoriginal video image 202 to become modified video image 204 are now morewidely available. The somewhat older technology of manipulating stillimages, when utilized on computing systems having processors withsufficient processing power, memory, and bandwidth may manipulateindividual frames of a video image to create the desired manipulatedimage. In one embodiment, a human agent's face is mapped, such as byelectronically applying markers 210 (e.g., dots) to the image, when amanipulation is desired, the geometry of a polygon, with vorticesidentified by markers 210, may be altered and the portion of theoriginal video image 202 image therein adjusted (e.g., stretched,shrunk, etc.) to fill the image of the modified polygon and become, atleast a portion of, modified video image 204. For example, polygon 206Ais reshaped to become polygon 206B and the portion of original image202, captured within polygon 206A, modified to fill polygon 206B.

Manipulating the image of a human agent's face may account for some orall of the desired modification of the image. Changes to the agent'sface may also be applied. For example, smile lines 208 may be added.Additionally, or alternatively, graphic elements may be removed, such aswhen an agent is smiling (e.g., has smile lines) and the modified imagewill make the agent appear more serious and, among other things, has thesmile lines removed. Such graphical elements may be stored as images,such still or video images of the agent providing a number of facialexpressions to be mapped to a polygon (e.g., polygon 206A) and/oralgorithmically determined manipulations (e.g., polygon 206A needs to bemodified to become polygon 206B, shading selectively applied to createsmile lines 208, etc.). The selection of the particular manipulationtechnique may be made, at least in part, by the bandwidth availableand/or attribute of customer communication device 108 for theinteraction between the human agent and customer communication device108. For example, if the customer is watching a video on a lowresolution screen (e.g., a cellular telephone), then more nuancedexpression changes may be omitted as the resolution presented to thecustomer, due to the small screen size or the data contained in alow-bandwidth video, may not be capable of presenting such nuanced imagecomponents. In contrast, a customer utilizing ahigh-resolution/high-bandwidth connection may be presented with modifiedimage 204 comprising a greater number of manipulations from originalvideo image 202.

FIG. 3 depicts system 300 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, customer 302 and human agent 310 areengaged in an interaction that, at least, includes a real-time videoimage of human agent 310. Human agent 310 may be embodied as resource112 when further embodied as a human being utilizing agent communicationdevice 306. The interaction may further comprise audio (e.g., speech),text messages, emails, co-browsing, etc. from human agent 310, customer302, or both. Human agent 310 has a current facial expression. Server304, which comprises at least one processor with a memory and furthercomprises, or has access to, such as via a communication interface, datarepository 314. Server 304 may receive a real-time video image viacamera 308 of agent communication device 306 and monitor the interactionbetween customer 302 and human agent 310. Server 304 may determine adesired facial expression for human agent 310. The desired facialexpression may comprise a facial expression determined to indicate adesired emotional state that has previously been identified as resultingin a greater likelihood of successfully completing the interaction. Forexample, server 304 may determine that a desired facial expressioncomprises a smile. If server 304 determines there is no mismatch (e.g.,human agent 310 is smiling and the desired facial expression is also asmile) then server 304 may provide the unmodified, original image ofhuman agent 310 as presented in video image 320. However, if server 304determines that there is a mismatch between the facial expression ofhuman agent 310 and the desired facial expression, then server 304 mayaccess data structure 316 and select replacement image 318.

It should be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that datastructure 316, comprising replacement image 318, is illustrated ashaving graphically different facial expressions in order for theembodiment to be more readily understood and to avoid unnecessarilycomplicating the figures and description. Data structure 316 maycomprise a number of records such as for each desired facial expression,such as replacement image 318, which may further be embodied as acomputer-readable data structure and/or algorithmic modification(s) toan image or portion thereof, including but not limited to, polygonidentifiers mapped to a portion of an image of human agent 310 and/orthe manipulation(s) to apply to a polygon(s) mapped to the face of humanagent 310, graphical elements to add and/or remove (e.g., smile lines),vectors to reposition markers associated with polygon vertices, and/orother graphical image manipulation data/instructions. As a result,server 304 may select a desired facial expression and apply replacementimage 318 to the real-time image of human agent 310 to cause presentedvideo image 320 to be of human agent 310, as manipulated, to have thefacial expression determined, at least in part, by replacement image318.

FIG. 4 depicts data structure 400 in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In one embodiment, data structure 400 is utilized byat least one processor of server 304 to determine the desired facialexpression for human agent 310, such as when an overall facialexpression is known and a particular degree or level is known. Server304 may determine that a particular level 402 is appropriate forpreviously selected facial expression 404 and one of records 406selected therefrom. Data structure 400 comprises records 406 thatidentify and/or comprise the specific image manipulations for a desiredfacial expression. For example, a level two frown (FR2) may besubsequently identified, such as within data structure 316, to accessthe specific image manipulations required to cause such a facialexpression to be provided as presented video image 320.

Not every facial expression, even within the same type of facialexpression, is equivalent. For example, one smile may be an expressionof friendliness, whereas another smile may be appropriate when somethingamusing occurs, as may be true with other emotions. As another example,customer 302 may be engaged in an interaction with human agent 310 andserver 304 determines that a desired facial expression for human agent310 is a frown, such as to show sadness to commiserate with customer 302after learning that customer 302 is missing a bag from an airlineflight. However, if customer 302 indicates that the bag contained only afew old clothes, one level of a frown may be appropriate, versus thefrown appropriate if customer 302 indicates that the bag contained avery expensive camera. Accordingly, data structure 316 may comprise datastructures for various degrees or levels of a particular desired facialexpression.

FIG. 5 depicts data structure 500 in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Humans learn what facial expressions are and are notappropriate. This determination is often highly intuitive and difficultto quantify. For example, a smile may be taken as friendly or demeaning(e.g., being laughed at). Humans may wish to commiserate with anotherhuman, and therefore show a facial expression associated with an emotionof the other person. However, the opposite emotion, and associatedfacial expression, may provide reassurance, authority, or other stateassociated with a particular interaction. For example, a traveler who ismissing a bag may be presented with a smiling agent who says, “that'seasy, we'll get that taken care of,” in order to provide the travelerwith the impression that the issue will be successfully resolved and theagent is able to facilitate the resolution.

Accordingly, and in one embodiment, data structure 500 comprises datarecords 506 associated with topics 504 and desired emotional responses502. For example, a processor of server 304 may determine that aninteraction between customer 302 and human agent 310 comprises “topicattribute 2” (e.g., in-flight food). Server 304 may further determinethat the desired emotional response comprises “understanding.”Accordingly, surprise level 1 (SP1) is selected, such as from datastructure 316 and applied to the image of human agent 310. Additionally,or alternatively, an attribute of customer 302 may be utilized todetermine the particular desired facial expression and/or degreethereof. For example, customer 302 may be highly expressive and relatewell to human agents that are also highly expressive. Accordingly, aparticular image manipulation or level of image manipulation may beselected. In contrast, customer 302 may be uncomfortable with highlyexpressive agents and, accordingly, a different image manipulation orlevel of image manipulation is provided. Such differences may be based,alone or in part, on culture, gender, geography, age, education,occupation, and/or other attribute of customer 302 specifically or asbeing within a particular demographic.

In another embodiment, machine-learning may be provided to determine aparticular desired facial expression. For example, server 304 may selectan alternative desired facial expression for human agent 310 that is notcurrently providing the desired facial expression. If the results of theinteraction between customer 302 and human agent 310 are successful,then a weighting is applied to the alternative desired facial expressionthat causes it to be selected more frequently or become the desiredfacial expression.

FIG. 6 depicts process 600 in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one embodiment, at least one processor, such as aprocessor of server 304 and/or agent communication device 306 isconfigured to execute process 600 when embodied as machine-readableinstructions for execution thereby. Process 600 begins and optional step602 accesses a customer attribute. For example, a particular customer302 may prefer highly expressive agents or belong to a demographic thatprefers highly expressive agents. Step 604 accesses a real-time video ofthe agent, such as by camera 308 accessing providing a real-time imageof human agent 310 while engaged in an interaction with customer 302.Next, step 608 analyses the topic of the interaction. Step 608 may beperformed by the agent alone, such as by indicating a topic the customerwishes to address, the customer alone, such as via an input to aninteractive voice response (IVR) or other input prior to initiating theinteraction with the agent, and/or by monitoring keywords or phrasesprovided within the interaction.

Next, step 610 determines a desired impression for the agent to provide.For example, it may have been previously determined that, for aparticular customer and/or topic, the agent should make a particularimpression, such as authoritative, sympathetic, respectful, friendly,etc. in order to improve the prospect of resolving the interactionsuccessfully. Step 612 then selects a desired facial expression inaccordance with the desired impression and, in step 614, the agent'scurrent expression.

Additionally, or alternatively, step 614 may utilize Natural LanguageRecognition (NPL) to apply machine learning to analyze the sentiment ofthe situation and override the expression of agent accordingly. Forexample, if a desired impression and expression is determined, however,the sentiment of the situation calls for a different expressionaltogether then the sentiment of the situation will take precedence overthe previously determined impression and expression.

Test 618 determines if the agent's current expression is, or is not, amatch to the desired facial expression. If test 618 is determined in theaffirmative, then step 620 provides the unmodified image of the agent tothe customer. However, if test 618 is determined in the negative, thenstep 622 applies the modifications to the agent's facial expression andprovides the modified image of the agent to the customer. Process 600may then continue back to step 608 to analyze a subsequent topic or, ifthe interaction is complete, process 600 may end.

FIG. 7 depicts a third system in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In one embodiment, agent communication device 306and/or server 304 may be embodied, in whole or in part, as device 702comprising various components and connections to other components and/orsystems. The components are variously embodied and may compriseprocessor 704. Processor 704 may be embodied as a single electronicmicroprocessor or multiprocessor device (e.g., multicore) having thereincomponents such as control unit(s), input/output unit(s), arithmeticlogic unit(s), register(s), primary memory, and/or other components thataccess information (e.g., data, instructions, etc.), such as receivedvia bus 714, execute instructions, and output data, again such as viabus 714.

In addition to the components of processor 704, device 702 may utilizememory 706 and/or data storage 708 for the storage of accessible data,such as instructions, values, etc. Communication interface 710facilitates communication with components, such as processor 704 via bus714 with components not accessible via bus 714. Communication interface710 may be embodied as a network port, card, cable, or other configuredhardware device. Additionally, or alternatively, input/output interface712 connects to one or more interface components to receive and/orpresent information (e.g., instructions, data, values, etc.) to and/orfrom a human and/or electronic device. Examples of input/output devices730 that may be connected to the input/output interface 712 include, butare not limited to, keyboard, mouse, trackball, printers, displays,sensor, switch, relay, etc. In another embodiment, communicationinterface 710 may comprise, or be comprised by, input/output interface712. Communication interface 710 may be configured to communicatedirectly with a networked component or utilize one or more networks,such as network 720 and/or network 724.

Communication network 104 may be embodied, in whole or in part, asnetwork 720. Network 720 may be a wired network (e.g., Ethernet),wireless (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, cellular, etc.) network, or combinationthereof and enable device 702 to communicate with network component(s)722.

Additionally, or alternatively, one or more other networks may beutilized. For example, network 724 may represent a second network, whichmay facilitate communication with components utilized by device 702. Forexample, network 724 may be an internal network to contact center 102whereby components are trusted (or at least more so) than networkedcomponents 722, which may be connected to network 720 comprising apublic network (e.g., Internet) that may not be as trusted. Componentsattached to network 724 may include memory 726, data storage 728,input/output device(s) 730, and/or other components that may beaccessible to processor 704. For example, memory 726 and/or data storage728 may supplement or supplant memory 706 and/or data storage 708entirely or for a particular task or purpose. For example, memory 726and/or data storage 728 may be an external data repository (e.g., serverfarm, array, “cloud,” etc.) and allow device 702, and/or other devices,to access data thereon. Similarly, input/output device(s) 730 may beaccessed by processor 704 via input/output interface 712 and/or viacommunication interface 710 either directly, via network 724, vianetwork 720 alone (not shown), or via networks 724 and 720.

It should be appreciated that computer-readable data may be sent,received, stored, processed, and presented by a variety of components.It should also be appreciated that components illustrated may controlother components, whether illustrated herein or otherwise. For example,one input/output device 730 may be a router, switch, port, or othercommunication component such that a particular output of processor 704enables (or disables) input/output device 730, which may be associatedwith network 720 and/or network 724, to allow (or disallow)communications between two or more nodes on network 720 and/or network724. For example, a connection between one particular customer, using aparticular customer communication device 108, may be enabled (ordisabled) with a particular networked component 722 and/or particularresource 112. Similarly, one particular networked component 722 and/orresource 112 may be enabled (or disabled) from communicating with aparticular other networked component 722 and/or resource 112, including,in certain embodiments, device 702 or vice versa. Ones of ordinary skillin the art will appreciate that other communication equipment may beutilized, in addition or as an alternative, to those described hereinwithout departing from the scope of the embodiments.

In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methodswere described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that inalternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different orderthan that described without departing from the scope of the embodiments.It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may beperformed as algorithms executed by hardware components (e.g.,circuitry) purpose-built to carry out one or more algorithms or portionsthereof described herein. In another embodiment, the hardware componentmay comprise a general-purpose microprocessor (e.g., CPU, GPU) that isfirst converted to a special-purpose microprocessor. The special-purposemicroprocessor then having had loaded therein encoded signals causingthe, now special-purpose, microprocessor to maintain machine-readableinstructions to enable the microprocessor to read and execute themachine-readable set of instructions derived from the algorithms and/orother instructions described herein. The machine-readable instructionsutilized to execute the algorithm(s), or portions thereof, are notunlimited but utilize a finite set of instructions known to themicroprocessor. The machine-readable instructions may be encoded in themicroprocessor as signals or values in signal-producing components andincluded, in one or more embodiments, voltages in memory circuits,configuration of switching circuits, and/or by selective use ofparticular logic gate circuits. Additionally or alternative, themachine-readable instructions may be accessible to the microprocessorand encoded in a media or device as magnetic fields, voltage values,charge values, reflective/non-reflective portions, and/or physicalindicia.

In another embodiment, the microprocessor further comprises one or moreof a single microprocessor, a multi-core processor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, a distributed processing system (e.g., array(s),blade(s), server farm(s), “cloud”, multi-purpose processor array(s),cluster(s), etc.) and/or may be co-located with a microprocessorperforming other processing operations. Any one or more microprocessormay be integrated into a single processing appliance (e.g., computer,server, blade, etc.) or located entirely or in part in a discretecomponent connected via a communications link (e.g., bus, network,backplane, etc. or a plurality thereof).

Examples of general-purpose microprocessors may comprise, a centralprocessing unit (CPU) with data values encoded in an instructionregister (or other circuitry maintaining instructions) or data valuescomprising memory locations, which in turn comprise values utilized asinstructions. The memory locations may further comprise a memorylocation that is external to the CPU. Such CPU-external components maybe embodied as one or more of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA),read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), random access memory (RAM),bus-accessible storage, network-accessible storage, etc.

These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or moremachine-readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of opticaldisks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic oroptical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediumssuitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methodsmay be performed by a combination of hardware and software.

In another embodiment, a microprocessor may be a system or collection ofprocessing hardware components, such as a microprocessor on a clientdevice and a microprocessor on a server, a collection of devices withtheir respective microprocessor, or a shared or remote processingservice (e.g., “cloud” based microprocessor). A system ofmicroprocessors may comprise task-specific allocation of processingtasks and/or shared or distributed processing tasks. In yet anotherembodiment, a microprocessor may execute software to provide theservices to emulate a different microprocessor or microprocessors. As aresult, first microprocessor, comprised of a first set of hardwarecomponents, may virtually provide the services of a secondmicroprocessor whereby the hardware associated with the firstmicroprocessor may operate using an instruction set associated with thesecond microprocessor.

While machine-executable instructions may be stored and executed locallyto a particular machine (e.g., personal computer, mobile computingdevice, laptop, etc.), it should be appreciated that the storage of dataand/or instructions and/or the execution of at least a portion of theinstructions may be provided via connectivity to a remote data storageand/or processing device or collection of devices, commonly known as“the cloud,” but may include a public, private, dedicated, shared and/orother service bureau, computing service, and/or “server farm.”

Examples of the microprocessors as described herein may include, but arenot limited to, at least one of Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 800 and 801,Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 610 and 615 with 4G LTE Integration and 64-bitcomputing, Apple® A7 microprocessor with 64-bit architecture, Apple® M7motion comicroprocessors, Samsung® Exynos® series, the Intel® Core™family of microprocessors, the Intel® Xeon® family of microprocessors,the Intel® Atom™ family of microprocessors, the Intel Itanium® family ofmicroprocessors, Intel® Core® i5-4670K and i7-4770K 22 nm Haswell,Intel® Core® i5-3570K 22 nm Ivy Bridge, the AMD® FX™ family ofmicroprocessors, AMD® FX-4300, FX-6300, and FX-8350 32 nm Vishera, AMD®Kaveri microprocessors, Texas Instruments® Jacinto C6000™ automotiveinfotainment microprocessors, Texas Instruments® OMAP™ automotive-grademobile microprocessors, ARM® Cortex™-M microprocessors, ARM® Cortex-Aand ARM926EJ-S™ microprocessors, other industry-equivalentmicroprocessors, and may perform computational functions using any knownor future-developed standard, instruction set, libraries, and/orarchitecture.

Any of the steps, functions, and operations discussed herein can beperformed continuously and automatically.

The exemplary systems and methods of this invention have been describedin relation to communications systems and components and methods formonitoring, enhancing, and embellishing communications and messages.However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention, thepreceding description omits a number of known structures and devices.This omission is not to be construed as a limitation of the scope of theclaimed invention. Specific details are set forth to provide anunderstanding of the present invention. It should, however, beappreciated that the present invention may be practiced in a variety ofways beyond the specific detail set forth herein.

Furthermore, while the exemplary embodiments illustrated herein show thevarious components of the system collocated, certain components of thesystem can be located remotely, at distant portions of a distributednetwork, such as a LAN and/or the Internet, or within a dedicatedsystem. Thus, it should be appreciated, that the components or portionsthereof (e.g., microprocessors, memory/storage, interfaces, etc.) of thesystem can be combined into one or more devices, such as a server,servers, computer, computing device, terminal, “cloud” or otherdistributed processing, or collocated on a particular node of adistributed network, such as an analog and/or digital telecommunicationsnetwork, a packet-switched network, or a circuit-switched network. Inanother embodiment, the components may be physical or logicallydistributed across a plurality of components (e.g., a microprocessor maycomprise a first microprocessor on one component and a secondmicroprocessor on another component, each performing a portion of ashared task and/or an allocated task). It will be appreciated from thepreceding description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, thatthe components of the system can be arranged at any location within adistributed network of components without affecting the operation of thesystem. For example, the various components can be located in a switchsuch as a PBX and media server, gateway, in one or more communicationsdevices, at one or more users' premises, or some combination thereof.Similarly, one or more functional portions of the system could bedistributed between a telecommunications device(s) and an associatedcomputing device.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links connectingthe elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof,or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable ofsupplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements.These wired or wireless links can also be secure links and may becapable of communicating encrypted information. Transmission media usedas links, for example, can be any suitable carrier for electricalsignals, including coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, andmay take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generatedduring radio-wave and infra-red data communications.

Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed and illustrated inrelation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciatedthat changes, additions, and omissions to this sequence can occurwithout materially affecting the operation of the invention.

A number of variations and modifications of the invention can be used.It would be possible to provide for some features of the inventionwithout providing others.

In yet another embodiment, the systems and methods of this invention canbe implemented in conjunction with a special purpose computer, aprogrammed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integratedcircuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digitalsignal microprocessor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such asdiscrete element circuit, a programmable logic device or gate array suchas PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means,or the like. In general, any device(s) or means capable of implementingthe methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the variousaspects of this invention. Exemplary hardware that can be used for thepresent invention includes computers, handheld devices, telephones(e.g., cellular, Internet enabled, digital, analog, hybrids, andothers), and other hardware known in the art. Some of these devicesinclude microprocessors (e.g., a single or multiple microprocessors),memory, nonvolatile storage, input devices, and output devices.Furthermore, alternative software implementations including, but notlimited to, distributed processing or component/object distributedprocessing, parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can alsobe constructed to implement the methods described herein.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be readilyimplemented in conjunction with software using object or object-orientedsoftware development environments that provide portable source code thatcan be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms.Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially orfully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whethersoftware or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance withthis invention is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirementsof the system, the particular function, and the particular software orhardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems beingutilized.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be partiallyimplemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executedon programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of acontroller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, orthe like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this inventioncan be implemented as a program embedded on a personal computer such asan applet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server orcomputer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated measurementsystem, system component, or the like. The system can also beimplemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into asoftware and/or hardware system.

Embodiments herein comprising software are executed, or stored forsubsequent execution, by one or more microprocessors and are executed asexecutable code. The executable code being selected to executeinstructions that comprise the particular embodiment. The instructionsexecuted being a constrained set of instructions selected from thediscrete set of native instructions understood by the microprocessorand, prior to execution, committed to microprocessor-accessible memory.In another embodiment, human-readable “source code” software, prior toexecution by the one or more microprocessors, is first converted tosystem software to comprise a platform (e.g., computer, microprocessor,database, etc.) specific set of instructions selected from theplatform's native instruction set.

Although the present invention describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the invention is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Other similar standards and protocols not mentioned hereinare in existence and are considered to be included in the presentinvention. Moreover, the standards and protocols mentioned herein andother similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein areperiodically superseded by faster or more effective equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Such replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents included in thepresent invention.

The present invention, in various embodiments, configurations, andaspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/orapparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, includingvarious embodiments, subcombinations, and subsets thereof. Those ofskill in the art will understand how to make and use the presentinvention after understanding the present disclosure. The presentinvention, in various embodiments, configurations, and aspects, includesproviding devices and processes in the absence of items not depictedand/or described herein or in various embodiments, configurations, oraspects hereof, including in the absence of such items as may have beenused in previous devices or processes, e.g., for improving performance,achieving ease, and\or reducing cost of implementation.

The foregoing discussion of the invention has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is not intendedto limit the invention to the form or forms disclosed herein. In theforegoing Detailed Description for example, various features of theinvention are grouped together in one or more embodiments,configurations, or aspects for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. The features of the embodiments, configurations, or aspectsof the invention may be combined in alternate embodiments,configurations, or aspects other than those discussed above. This methodof disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention thatthe claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recitedin each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventiveaspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosedembodiment, configuration, or aspect. Thus, the following claims arehereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate preferred embodiment of the invention.

Moreover, though the description of the invention has includeddescription of one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects andcertain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations,and modifications are within the scope of the invention, e.g., as may bewithin the skill and knowledge of those in the art, after understandingthe present disclosure. It is intended to obtain rights, which includealternative embodiments, configurations, or aspects to the extentpermitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalentstructures, functions, ranges, or steps to those claimed, whether or notsuch alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges, or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publiclydedicate any patentable subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing a situationally-matchedexpression in a video image, comprising: a communication interfaceconfigured to receive a video image of a human agent engaged in aninteraction via a network with a customer utilizing a customercommunication device; a processor having an accessible memory; a datastorage configured to maintain data records accessible to the processor;and the processor configured to: receive the video image of the humanagent; determine a desired facial expression of the human agent; modifythe video image of the human agent to comprise the desired facialexpression; and present the customer communication device with amodified video image of the human agent.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein determining the desired facial expression of the human agentcomprises, accessing a record in the data records having a topicmatching a topic of the interaction and wherein the record identifiesthe desired facial expression.
 3. The system of claim 1, whereindetermining the desired facial expression of the human agent comprises,accessing a current customer attribute of the customer and a record inthe data records having a stored customer attribute matching the currentcustomer attribute and wherein the record identifies the desired facialexpression.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein determining the desiredfacial expression of the human agent comprises, accessing a record inthe data records having a desired customer impression of a human agentattribute matching a topic of the interaction and wherein the recordidentifies the desired facial expression.
 5. The system of claim 1,further comprising the processor storing, in the data storage, at leastone of the video image or the modified video image.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the processor modifies the video image of the humanagent to comprise the desired facial expression, comprising applyingalterations to polygons mapping portions of the video image of the humanagent in accordance with alteration data maintained in the data storage.7. The system of claim 1, wherein: the processor modifies the videoimage of the human agent to comprise the desired facial expression, uponfirst determining a current facial expression; and the processordetermines the current facial expression is a mismatch to the desiredfacial expression.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the processordetermines the current facial expression is a mismatch to the desiredfacial expression, upon determining the current facial expression andthe desired facial expression provide the same expression with amismatched degree of the same expression.
 9. The system of claim 1,further comprising the processor storing, in the data storage, indiciaof success of the interaction and associated at least one of the desiredfacial expression or a current facial expression of the human agent. 10.The system of claim 9, wherein the processor determines the desiredfacial expression of the human agent comprising determining the at leastone of the desired facial expression or the current facial expression ofthe human agent having the indicia of success stored in the datastorage.
 11. A method, comprising: receiving a video image of a humanagent engaged in an interaction over a network with a customer via anassociated customer communication device; determining a desired facialexpression of the human agent; modifying the video image of the humanagent to comprise the desired facial expression; and presenting thecustomer communication device with a modified video image of the humanagent.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining the desiredfacial expression of the human agent further comprises, accessing arecord in a data storage having a topic matching a topic of theinteraction and wherein the record identifies the desired facialexpression.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining thedesired facial expression of the human agent further comprises,accessing a current customer attribute of the customer in a record in adata storage having a stored customer attribute matching the currentcustomer attribute and wherein the record identifies the desired facialexpression.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining thedesired facial expression of the human agent further comprises,accessing a record in a data record having a desired customer impressionof a human agent attribute matching a topic of the interaction andwherein the record identifies the desired facial expression.
 15. Themethod of claim 11, further comprising storing, in a data storage, atleast one of the video image or the modified video image.
 16. The methodof claim 11, wherein the modifying of the video image of the human agentto comprise the desired facial expression, further comprises applyingalterations to polygons mapping portions of the video image of the humanagent in accordance with alteration data maintained in a data storage.17. The method of claim 11, wherein the modifying of the video image ofthe human agent to comprise the desired facial expression, furtheroccurs upon first determining a current facial expression anddetermining the current facial expression is a mismatch to the desiredfacial expression.
 18. The method of claim 17, determining the currentfacial expression is a mismatch to the desired facial expression,further comprises determining the current facial expression and thedesired facial expression provide the same expression with a mismatcheddegree of the same expression.
 19. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising storing, in the data storage, indicia of success of theinteraction and associated at least one of the desired facial expressionor a current facial expression of the human agent.
 20. A system:comprising: means to receive a video image of a human agent engaged inan interaction over a network with a customer via an associated customercommunication device; means to determine a desired facial expression ofthe human agent, wherein the desired facial expression is selected inaccordance with a facial expression associated with an attribute of theinteraction and a successful outcome for past interaction having theattribute; means to modify the video image of the human agent tocomprise the desired facial expression; and means to present thecustomer communication device with a modified video image of the humanagent.